Have you already been thinking about next year's trends in development technologies and skills needed to create the most innovative solutions? Well, we have. Our HR colleagues have been pondering what kind of new skills are needed and which way we should develop our tech pool to meet our clients' future expectations. So, here we have come up with a short list of competencies that we think will be in high demand in the months to come!

Along with the dynamic development of new technologies, there is still a need for new hands on the IT job market. The most in-demand developers are those who possess unique knowledge and competences adapted to the current and future needs of the ever-changing market. Do you know which skills will be most favored by employers in the coming year? We invite you to read our forecasts for 2019!

Knowledge of Blockchain Technology

Blockchain is a technology that will undoubtedly have a huge impact on the construction of the next generation of the Internet. It can already be said that the solution has revolutionized the contemporary world and will continue to inspire further changes.

The block technology wants to embrace more and more enterprises that will invest in tools for implementing blockchain-based databases. Therefore, in 2019, the demand for blockchain programmers will be still on the rise. Thanks to cryptographic algorithms coding, they will be able to create software that allows them to create distributed and decentralized databases. Certainly, the knowledge of technologies such as C ++, JavaScript, Python or Solidity will still be helpful.

Analyzing the dynamic development of this technology in recent years, as well as analyzing the list of current and planned ICOs, may lead to an assumption that this field will be dynamically developing for at least several years to come.

And what is the expected outcome of this trend? First of all, it can be assumed that a large number of traditional enterprises will have to change or will be replaced by companies ready to take full advantage of the blockchain technology.

Knowledge of the Fintech industry

Fintech, as the name itself suggests, is the industry that brings together the world of finance with the world of technology. Innovative solutions are adopted to improve various financial services, such as online payments, currency exchange, or taking a loan. The branch is developing very dynamically. According to the Statista portal, global investments in enterprises in the field of Fintech will have exceeded 46 billion dollars by 2020. It's easy to guess that as an area directly related to finance, may also generate huge profits, even throughout commission. Among other things, this is why the Fintech industry is able to foresee such a major development and nothing which can foreshadow the tendency to change. Quite the opposite — we predict that in 2019 more and more companies, as well as Fintech start-ups, will be surfacing together with companies that aspire to this name.

Fintech may be a competition for traditional banks, but this is not the only option. The more optimistic option assumes that Fintech companies will be open for cooperation. Regardless of what the future of traditional banks will look like, the development of new technologies and, consequently, the introduction of such solutions as mobile wallets or automated consultants will increase the demand for programmers who will be able to create such innovative products in line with the needs of this dynamically growing market.

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

Another area worth paying attention to, in 2019, is artificial intelligence. You can find out how the slogan "machine learning" has been gaining popularity by taking a look at the analysis of the results of the last 5 years available in Google Trends.

Machine Learning is a concept from the field of artificial intelligence, which means algorithms that process and learn from collected data. Machine Learning is used, for example, in marketing to match relevant ads based on a user's search results. They are also used in applications with functions such as face, speech, or text recognition, navigation, recommendation systems (e.g. Spotify), and many more.

The problem in finding programmers in the field of AI is because it is a relatively young field, and therefore it is very difficult to find specialists with long-term experience. In other words, the threshold for entering and working in this industry has been set quite high compared to other IT fields such as web programming or mobile applications. The reason behind it is the vast mathematical knowledge this specialization requires. While working in Machine Learning, it is almost essential to be familiarised with numerical methods, linear algebra, probability, and mathematical statistics, as well as libraries such as NumPy or SciPy. The programming languages most commonly used are Python and R, the first of which is definitely more popular.

And what kind of employers look for people specializing in the field of artificial intelligence? According to the report "Artificial Intelligence. The Next Digital Frontier" created by McKinsey & Company, the adoption of artificial intelligence is unevenly distributed among the industries. Strong sectors such as financial, new technologies, and communication are the decisive leaders. Companies in these fields have the greatest need for qualified specialists with the knowledge in the field of machine learning.

Problem-Solving Skills

It cannot be denied that the knowledge of modern technologies is a crucial element of a programmer's job, but the ability to efficiently accomplish assigned tasks by solving the encountered problems quickly is even more important. This has been confirmed by the results of the "2018 Developer Skills Report" prepared by the HackerRank portal, which reveals that the most desired skill in development, from an employers perspective, is problem-solving abilities.

Nearly 95% of the surveyed employers indicated this particular competence (see above). This naturally should not be surprising, because solving problems is an inseparable part of a programmer's everyday work. If a developer possesses such a skill, the gaps in the knowledge of a given technology or programming language will be quickly filled. The key element while working in IT is to identify and understand a problem, and then break it down into smaller tasks so that as many tasks as possible can be solved. Only in this way will the programmer be able to cope with large tasks. Analyzing the development of technologies such as the above-mentioned blockchain and artificial intelligence, you can notice how dynamically the IT market is evolving and changing. This means that programmers will face increasingly difficult and complex tasks which they have never been encountered before.

What's more, it has been emphasized that the knowledge of programming languages is not the only job requirement when it comes programmers. In order to perform well, they must follow the latest trends and know what solutions will meet the users' expectations. It is also necessary to have an innovative and creative mind that will help design applications tailored to, for example, Pokemon Go or Instagram, which have won the hearts of millions of users around the world. Creating new solutions that will be able to improve the quality of a given software, as well as the so-called the best user experience would not be possible without problem-solving.

If, in 2018, this skill was so high in the ranking and greatly valued by employers, we have no doubt that the next year it will still be among the most desired skill in a programming scene.

Summary

The IT industry has been developing dynamically for many years and we have no doubts that it will still be evolving even faster in the upcoming years. The knowledge of innovative technologies, but above all, tracking and following the latest trends constantly are the skills that are, and will be, increasingly in demand. In our opinion, in 2019, the most important issue will be to understand the customers' and users' needs. This is the basis on which software will be developed that has to be adapted to and suited to the latest trends of the constantly changing market.